Week 8 Reading

This week's Hodgson chapter gave an in-depth definition of urban agriculture in the United States, from its history to the ways in which the current planning environment can either facilitate or discourage its practice. I was aware that urban agriculture has been a part of U.S. cities since colonial times, but I was unaware of the extent of this involvement. For instance, I found it very interesting that New York's Central Park was once home to a dairy operation. From the reading it is clear that the presence of agricultural activities within cities was an effective strategy to address poverty and community development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from providing milk to mothers and children (like an early WIC program) to the planting of vegetable gardens in housing projects directed to help recent immigrants (Hodgson, 2012).

The heyday of urban food production was in the early to mid-20th century, during the World Wars and Great Depression, which was the time when the federal government first became involved in urban agriculture initiatives. The victory gardens of this time period are well known, but the extent and productivity of these gardens were greater than I had ever realized. In the year 1943 there were over twenty million gardens on private and public lands throughout urban areas, which produced around ten million tons of fruit and vegetables (Hodgson, 2012). Despite the benefits of urban agriculture to society in these periods of duress, once the economy began to thrive in the latter 20th century and agriculture in the rural areas of the country industrialized, the practice of food production in cities lost much support. The combination of sub-urbanization and the development of zoning as a tool to separate perceived incompatible uses led to planners and local governments pushing farming further and further away from city centers (Hodgson, 2012).

Although urban agriculture is once again becoming a supported practice around the country, zoning ordinances still create barriers for many would-be farmers in cities. Other barriers include lack of secure land tenure, as many developers and planners may view urban farms and community gardens as interim uses, and difficulty accessing the resources necessary such as affordable land and uncontaminated soil and water. Hodgson also brings up lack of funding as a problem for farm and garden programs attempting to get started. It is interesting that commodity farms may receive around $75 billion in government subsidies, but the amount available for the USDA's Community Food Project Grants is only about $5 million (Hodgson, 2012).